Continuous investment has been the key to constant sales growth at Stockport based Windmill Tapes & Labels where a new factory, plant and a skilled workforce has enabled the company to retain a competitive edge.
And 2016 is set to see further investment at Windmill. Plans are underway to install a new bespoke IT system, CERM business management software for narrow web printers. The new system will be the most significant investment for the year and will transform the business in terms of efficiency and speed of response to our customer’s requirements.
Specifically designed for label printers, the new system provides a sophisticated platform for them to manage their customers highly complex and diverse product ranges.
Andrew Southern, managing director said: “The new software will be far more accurate and time efficient. It will improve the speed of recall when looking to find previous job details, and greatly reduce the processing time when entering orders. Equally, as all pre-press information is held at product level, the risk of order entry and processing errors is dramatically reduced.
“All in all, we expect it to transform the business and provide us with a platform to continue to grow over the coming years whilst keeping a control over administration costs.”
Towards the end of 2015, Windmill took delivery of a new press – the Omega SRi die cutter, slitter / rewinder. The press is the latest developed by market leaders, ABG International, for fast, efficient automated label finishing.
Andrew continued: “We expect that the finishing line will significantly improve productivity in the plain label conversion area of the business.
“The market for blanks continues to grow at a pace and customers are demanding more of us in terms of lower cost & quicker turn round, something we are able to commit to now that the SRi is fully operational.
“This new machine will meet the ever increasing demand for greater production efficiency and will allow us to die cut both plain and pre-printed material at high speed and in large volumes. The extra capacity provided by the new unit will help meet increasing customer demand and to grow the business in this important market.”